


An Arm and A Leg

by Location_Unknown



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Galra Keith, Hurt Lance, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Lance (Voltron), M/M, Pre-Established Klance, They're already dating so that kind of thing won't be established again, hurt keith, klance, klangst, protective keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 01:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10776504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Location_Unknown/pseuds/Location_Unknown
Summary: When the Garla capture the paladins of an arm and a leg of Voltron in an attempt to cripple their biggest enemy, they don't realize what chaos they've brought when a lieutenant mistakenly records the identities of Keith and Lance, REVERSED.Lance and Keith rapidly realize that keeping up the charade may keep them alive until the rest of the team can find them, or kill them far quicker.





	1. Chapter 1

     Lance had to bite his tongue as his arm was wrenched behind his back. He knew that everything was going to shit as soon as it started, but he prayed it wouldn't come to this. He had dodged every blast he could, but it came to that point where he knew every turn he made was futile. He had gotten out every refugee he could, and then, once surrounded by Galra, threw out every trick in the book to somehow get back to the castle, all for not.

 

     So now, here he stood, already injured with a deep cut on his leg and a bleeding gash on his temple. He was in the middle of some Galra warship, in the thin under suit of his armor, in front of a mostly-mechanical Galra Captain, who seemed as if he was the space equivalent of Syndrome from The Incredibles. If Lance wasn't so terrified, he would've told him enough with the monologue. But he was terrified, more than he'd been in his entire life. As much as he was glad that he was the only one captured, he wished that someone else was here with him, to help him through the trama he knew was coming.

 

     "But enough about your downfall," The Captain grumbled, standing taller. Lance imagined how the mechanical legs sounded if they weren't oiled, and wondered if they had WD-40 this deep in space. "And allow me to inform you who will be the one commanding your ultimate demise. I am Captain Konrek, 5th in command under Lord Zarkon. I will allow you to realize the implications of the kind of power I must hold. But, I digress." Konrek stepped down from his elevated control panel and approached Lance, who tried holding his own, despite knowing that he was visibly trembling.

 

     "You're scared. Good, you should be." Konrek reached down to Lance, picking him up by the throat. Lance tried kicking Konrek, to have him let go, but nothing helped. He stared at Lance until Lance's vision began to dim. "Know this, paladin. Without an arm and leg, Voltron will be crippled. It will be nothing, and the universe will bow to The Galra Empire. 

 

_An Arm and A Leg?_

 

Konrek dropped Lance, who gasped for air as he laid on the floor. He didn't see anyone else get captured, there was no way that anyone else could've been taken. Was the Captain lying in an effort to scare him, or was he telling the truth? Combined with the lack of oxygen that Lance was struggling to get, thinking anything but fear of the possibility that someone else was captured was impossible. If they had taken Pidge, there was no telling of what would happen to her. They could torture her for information, or break her so catastrophically that she forgot who she was, or what she could do. She was so young, and held so much potential, that Lance was devasted at the premise of anything like that happening to her. And if it wasn't Pidge, there was only one other possibility.

 

    Lance heard a shout of protest in the distance, "Let go of me!!" 

 

     Lance felt sick to his stomach. He knew that voice anywhere, from any distance, and it wasn't Pidge. He had barely caught his breath, but as soon as he heard those words, panic began to set in, and he felt like he had been choked again. He tried getting up to see where it came from, but a guard grabbed his shoulder and yanked upward. He yelped, his shoulder burning, and he was terrifying that it had come out of place. He was so busy trying not to fall back over that he barely registered the guard tying his hands together behind his back as the frantically searched the large room.

 

     "You seem alarmed, Paladin? Were you under the impression that we were only after one part of Voltron?" Captain Konrek seemed to hum with malice as he spoke. "No, when we strike, we deal strong blows."

 

     Another Galra dragged Keith into the command room, kicking and screaming. Lance was glad that the Garla were unaware of earth's vernacular, because he'd never heard Keith swear this much in his life. Keith didn't seem to notice anything other than the Galra who was struggling to keep him from getting loose. Lance tried to be an invisible as possible, because he knew that if he distracted Keith, his chances of escape would drop dramatically. Lance thought to himself that if Keith could get loose, he really had a chance of escape. Keith was kicking an screaming like a deadly toddler having a tantrum, which was something Lance always thought when Keith was in futile situations because he knew that Keith would never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. Keith kept screaming at the galra to let him go, and would kick and hit, even with his arms held behind him, without his armor and weapon.

 

     "ENOUGH!" Konrek bellowed. With everyone's attention on the Captain, Lance realized why Keith hadn't seen him right off the bat. Konrek had been standing directly in front of Lance, but not from the soldier holding him. If Lance looked past Konrek, he could see Keith. But Keith would only see him if he looked for him, and if he looked past Konrek, which was all but impossible to do. "You scream like an animal who has lost, and if your efforts are worth nothing, I should not have to go through the annoyance of hearing them."

 

     Konrek shifted, and Keith was hidden from Lance's view. Like a punch in the gut, Lance realized what was likely going on. Keith wasn't stupid, but neither was Konrek. Keith knew that this was probably where Lance was, whether he came here on purpose or not, and Konrek figured that revealing to Keith that Lance was here, at the perfect time, was crucial. Lance had become a pawn, only because he had been captured first. Keith knew that Lance was there, but he didn't know that he was  _right there._

 

     Despite being across the room, Lance could hear every snarl and lilt in Keith's voice. "Why am I here?" He growled, "What do you want with me?"

 

     "It isn't what we want you to do, it's what we want to you stop doing. Voltron has once again become a pestilence to-"

 

     "Good." Keith snapped. Lance couldn't help but smile. He could tell that Keith wasn't too hurt, if at all, because he was still an interrupting little twit.

 

     "Because," Konrek drew out his words, and Lance yearned to be able to see what was going on. "If Voltron is crippled, than the universe stands no chance against us."

 

     Lance could hear the argument take place, but began to have trouble deciphering the words. It was becoming harder to stay standing, and each time he began to slouch, the galra holding him would yank him up by his non-dislocated shoulder. There was blood in his eyes and he was beginning to have trouble staying awake. He had no way of knowing if it was blood loss, a concussion, or something that he had been injected with while unconscious. But he couldn't help but be amused at the thought of Konrek moving aside to show Keith his body, because of how much it would have resembled that one scene from Sleeping Beauty.

 

     "Besides..." Konrek was beginning to draw out his words. Lance could hear the conversation again, but only if he concentrated, and he wasn't sure what had brought his attention back to the conversation. 'We knew why you were captured so easily int he first place... under the false belief that you could escape... with your partner."

 

     Lance would have revealed himself to Keith at that moment, had he not begun to collapse. The soldier holding him held him up by the underarm of his dislocated shoulder, and his shuddering gasps made it all but impossible to form any kind of coherent words. He watched Konrek step forward, deliberately not changing his angle so that the paladins were blind to each other. Lance wanted more than anything to shout for Keith, to tell him he was here.

 

     Lance could see Konrek lean over what he assumed was Keith. "We know who you came to rescue,  _paladin._ " The words dripped with malice.

 

     "Where is he!!?" Keith screamed. It gave Lance comfort among the terror, that Keith would stop at nothing to find him. He knew that one thing would never change. 

 

     "He's dead."

 

     Lance took a breath to shout, but the guard squeezed his shoulder, once again redirecting Lance's focus to staying awake. Now, especially. If he collapsed, Konrek could actually convince Keith that he was dead.

 

     "Liar!!! I saw you take him, I know you have him!!" Keith was trying not to cry, screaming in the face of the Captain, Lance could hear in his voice that he didn't believe him, but the words were still horrifying.

 

     "He succumbed to his injuries soon after boarding the ship. You are too late."

 

     "He's stronger than you think, he wouldn't die, he wouldn't leave me. He wouldn't leave us!" Keith tried not to sob.

 

     Lance drew in a breath to shout, but this time, the guard dug his claws in Lance's arm. The whole time, Lance had been trying to keep himself from screaming, but he stopped suppressing the urge. As the claws dug into his skin, he could feel the blood dripping down his arm.  _And he screamed._

 

    "KEITH!!" He wailed, only causing the guard to grip harder, adding fuel to the fire. "I'm here!!! Keith, I'm here, I'm alive, I-!!" The words shifted to shrieks of pain as the guard eviscerated Lance's arm. His eyes clenched shut and all he wanted was for it to end. He had revealed himself to Keith, and there was nothing else he could do now that would help their cause. His knees buckled underneath him, and this time, the guard lets him drop, everything turning black as he hears the sickening thud of his own head slamming to the floor.

 

    Keith watched in horror as Lance, who looked beaten to hell, fell to the ground after showing Keith where he was. He was alive, yes, but that was the only good sign from the encounter. He was hurt, and it was  _very, very bad._ The guard who was standing over him did not more to catch him, letting Lance collapse in a heap on the ground.

 

     "What did you do to him!!??" Keith demanded, getting in the face of the Captain. The only thing that mattered was Lance.

 

     "All we did was  _try_ to keep him from shouting. The rest he did to himself," The Captain chuckled, "he is a rather poor pilot."

 

     "Shut up!!' The guard holding Keith laughed, and he saw his opportunity. Keith kicked the guard back, and freed himself, running past to Captain. But by the time he was halfway to Lance, still limp on the floor, the guard looming over him was pointing his blaster at Lance's head. 

 

    Captain Konrek's voice boomed. "If you take one more step, my statement will no longer have been a lie."

 

     Keith's breath jumped in his chest, and in his moment of indecision, his arms were yanked behind his back, and bound there.

 

     "Keith..." Lance's voice was barely above a whisper, but Keith still heard it. He turned his head to see Lance's eyes barely open.

 

     "Lance, it's going to be alright. They're going to come get us, I'll get us out of-" Keith pleaded with Lance, but he eyes drifted shut again. "Lance!! Lance, stay awake!"

 

     The Captain laughed again. "Apparently neither of us are averse to lying." He turned to the guard nearest to Keith. "Take him to Cell 87X." Konrek's attention went back to Keith. "We will be watching you over the cameras. If you even flinch against our soldier, we will kill the other paladin."

 

     Keith was shoved along, through every twist and turn in the halls. He wanted to run, but he knew he'd be caught, and Lance would be killed. He really believed that if he has chased after Lance that he could have saved him, that he could have rescued him from the Galra before he really even needed rescuing. Now he'd made it harder for both of them. At least he was here with Lance, at least he could keep him safe, help take care of his injuries.

 

    They reached the cell sooner than Keith thought they would, and he was unceremoniously tossed in, the guard releasing his hands before slamming the door behind him. Keith sprinted back to the door, which had a large, barred window. "Where's Lance!!? What are you going to do with him!!?"

 

     There was no answer, and Keith was unsure what to do while he stood alone in the dark, a single flickering light outlining the empty room. He began pacing back and forth, trying to stay calm, knowing that if he panicked, he couldn't help anyone. He started listing ways to stay calm, and reassured himself that the team would inevitably find them and free them.

 

     He was interrupted mid-thought by the door swinging open, and before he could ask what they were doing, Lance was deposited onto the floor, still entirely limp, arms still behind his back. Keith rushed up to him, pulling him onto his lap and elevating his head. He pushed Lance's blood-matted hair off of his face, muttering as he held him close to his chest. He had to be okay, he had to wake up. Keith took a tally of everywhere that Lance was hurt. There was a gash on his forehead, his shoulder was dislocated, and his arm was nothing short of a shredded, bloody mess, along with a laceration on his leg.

 

     Keith laid Lance down, then took off his own shirt, beginning to tear it to shreds. He wrapped around Lance's arm, leg, and head, making sure to only use the clean strips of shirt. Once he was done, he picked up Lance, sitting down against the back wall of the cell, supporting Lance's weight so that he wasn't collapsed on the floor. Keith couldn't bear to see that, and held him close to his chest, wishing more than anything that Lance would wake up before the situation got even worse.

 

    "You have to wake up," Keith leaned forward, placing his forehead against Lance's, who didn't even flinch at the new contact. "I can't do this without you, you know that. You can't leave me."

 

    A new voice cut Keith off, but it didn't seem to be talking to him. Instead, it sounded like it was talking into a recording device. "This is Lieutenant Xald, Cycle 51. We have the Red and Blue Paladins of Voltron. The Blue Paladin seems to be in relatively good condition, and is incredibly protective of his fellow paladin. The Red Paladin, however, suffered injuries from his crash, and while he is less rebellious than the Blue Paladin, times his actions carefully. We will be observing them further."

 

     Keith wasn't sure he'd heard correctly, but couldn't imagine how he's misheard them. They had said that the Red Paladin was suffering from several injuries, but he was fine...

 

     Wait...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm Luna! I'm a writer based out of "Central City", MO! If you like this, talk to me! I'm a social butterfly, after all!


	2. Chapter 2

Lance watched himself fall, or more accurately, watched the Blue Lion fall, after it had been hit with a beam more powerful than anyone had ever seen prior. They weren’t ready for a hit of that magnitude, and shot down towards the nearest planet’s moon with incredibly velocity.

  
He could only describe it as an out of body experience, like those dreams that he would read about in books. He was a bystander to his own demise, floating in space. But, he wasn’t scared, just... off put. He could always tell when he was in a dream, and could easily bring himself out if he focused.

  
Except for now?

  
Lance was always able to pull himself out of dreams, even nightmares. There was always a part of him that knew it wasn’t real. But for some reason, even though he knew it wasn’t real, even when he shut his eyes as tightly as he could, he was stuck in whatever dream he was in.

  
He opened his eyes to keep watching, figuring that it was the only thing that he could do. He watched himself plummet to the moon, followed by his equivalent of a shooting star. The Red Lion was streaking after him, getting underneath his lion and trying to push it up. He couldn’t get the Blue Lion to stop falling, but supported him against the moon’s atmosphere. It wasn’t something Lance enjoyed watching. The Blue Lion had been torn apart, Lance noticed that the cockpit on her head had a gaping breach in it, which would explain why there seemed to be no one piloting it. Two legs, one front and back, looked half torn off. And the Red Lion was on full power, using every bit of fuel that it could muster, not to go anywhere, but to keep the Blue Lion from falling any further.

  
But then, nothing happened. The scene stayed there, as if he was watching a looped video. Nothing was happening, but he could tell that time was still going, because he could see the flames coming out of the Red Lion. But all that was happening was the Red Lion supporting the Blue Lion. Nothing else. Lance took this new opportunity to close his eyes again, trying to get out of his own dream.

  
“Owww...” Lance wished he’d stayed asleep when his body began to throb, but at the same time, it was how he knew he was awake.

  
“Lance??” Keith brought Lance’s head up, so they could talk without Lance staring at the ceiling. “You scared me, you son of a...” His voice broke, bringing his forehead to Lance’s.

  
“You were the one who followed me.” Lance couldn’t help but smile.

  
“I always do.”

  
“That’s why I love you.” Lance tried sitting up, only to grimace as Keith supported his back.

  
“Don’t even try to woo me right now.” Keith held his hand against Lance’s forehead, and made sure that his makeshift bandages were holding up. Lance’s hand followed, feeling the foreign object on his forehead.

  
“How did this get there?” Lance sounded exhausted, and Keith couldn’t blame him. He couldn’t even hold his head up on his own. “Where’d your shirt go?”

  
“It’s what’s keeping you from bleeding out.” Keith rubbed his thumb on the wrappings on Lance’s arm. Not enough to hurt, but just enough pressure so that Lance wouldn’t have to think too hard to figure out what he was talking about.

  
“Dang, Muscles... Thanks...” Lance couldn’t help but smile, despite at all. Keith would literally take the clothes off his back to make sure that Lance was better.

  
“You’re welcome.” Keith tried not to chuckle, which was always his first reaction when Lance called him Muscles, and Lance knew it. That was why he had done it.

  
“Are you okay?” Lance’s voice was airy, and almost hollow, like he was talking when he was breathing in.

  
“I’m fine, Lance. Don’t worry about it.”

  
“Are you lying, Muscles?”

  
“Lance- No, I’m not lying. I took my shirt off and tore it into shreds and then gave you first aid with the shreds. I’m fine.” Keith sighed. “You need to stop asking people if they’re okay while you’re dying.”

  
“No.” Lance nestled against Keith’s chance.

  
“I wouldn’t believe you if you said yes, anyway.” Keith shook his head.

  
“Whatever, Muscles.”

  
Lance’s eyes shut again, but Keith didn’t stop him. He was weak, injured, and Keith was terrified to push him past the limit of no return. If he could rest, his body could heal faster, hopefully, instead of making things worse. Keith let his head fall against the wall of the cell. He closed his eyes, but knew that he wouldn’t sleep. He focused on Lance’s breathing against his own, and was able to rest, if not sleep.

  
He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he knew no one could really tell time in captivity, when the door opened. Keith jolted up like he had woken up late from a class. His heart was beating at a rabbit’s pace and all his muscles tensed, pulling Lance to his chest. He pushed his head back against the wall, trying to alleviate the pain of the new light flooding into the cell.

  
He gripped Lance, still asleep, close to his body, eyes adjusting to the new light. There were five guards in the doorway, the tallest standing in the front.

 

“Rise, Blue Paladin.”

  
“He’s-” Keith caught himself. He should keep this up, any kind of charade that he and Lance could potentially use to their advantage, “No.”

  
“This is not your choice to make, Blue Paladin. Rise.”

  
“No.” Keith didn’t budge.

  
“We will savagely attack you and kill the Red Paladin if you do not follow our orders. You cannot protect him from us. Follow, and we leave him here. He has no use to us... now.”

  
Keith almost stopped to consider his options, but knew that there were no options to consider. Keith laid Lance down in front of him, which of course, woke him up.

  
“Muscles... what’s going on?” Lance felt the floor against his back, but was nowhere close to strong enough to bring himself up.He turned his head at Keith got up.

  
“I’ll be right back.” Keith knew that if he turned around, there was no way he would stay.

  
Lance saw the soldiers in the doorway, and knew what was happening. “Keith?” Lance’s voice broke, but that was only the latest wound to him.

  
Keith didn’t turn around, walking out of the cell, “I’ll be back.”

  
“Keith-”

  
The door slammed shut, and Keith immediately turned around, counting the guards to find out if they kept their word. All five were still with him. Two grabbed his arms and hauled him off the ground. He kicked, but only from sheer instinct, as his feet left the floor. The guards carried him by his upper arms a short distance, then tossed him into another empty room.

  
This room was stark white, with stainless walls and one single door. Captain Konrek stood in the door.

  
“Tell us what you know, and you will not burn.”

  
The Captain didn’t strike Keith as someone who didn’t mean what he said, and he sounded like he’d chosen his words carefully. He had put emphasis on the word burn.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

  
“I know that you are, but that’s beside the point. Tell us where to find Voltron, or we will make you tell us. You will burn.”

  
He said it again. Keith wondered what about that word was supposed to scare him. Obviously, he didn’t want to be set on fire, but nothing within the room looked capable of setting anything on fire.

  
“No.” Keith tried to hide his deductions from the Captain.

  
“You are the Blue Paladin, no?” Konrek looked smug.

  
“Yes?” Keith was wondering if he even had to deduce anything. He could probably wait the Captain out and he would tell him everything.

  
“If you do not give us all of the information we want to know, we will heat this room to 100 degrees, and leave you here for two hours.” Keith could, for a second time, hear the smugness in his voice.

  
Keith had to suppress a smile. Thank goodness he hadn’t corrected the Lieutenant. He was going to be tortured by enduring a warm spring day. Literally. He didn’t feel any humidity in the room, either, meaning it would feel like a pleasant spring day. But now, he had to keep up the facade. Keith spit at the Captain, and then sat down against the wall, pretending to be fuming mad as he felt the temperature rose.

  
“Two hours!” Captain Konrek demanded, shutting the door behind him.

  
Keith sat silently, no doubt in his mind that Konrek was watching, waiting for him to start crying to mercy. But Keith didn’t move, only readjusting himself every once in a while, even relaxing and laying down once he felt the temperature plateau. It was fine, relaxing almost.

  
He had always loved hot weather on earth, and out of everyone all the Castleship, he was easily the most tolerable to heat. He barely bat an eye at this heat. He laughed a bit, thinking how much Lance would’ve hated it. They were like fire and ice sometimes, even literally.

  
Then it hit him. Lance would have hated this, because Lance didn’t like hot weather. He was a swimmer, who prefered to be in a water, and put on a jacket and go outside in the rain. Even though he had lived in Cuba, Keith had heard his disdain for the summers there time and time again. It was one of the reasons he had bonded so well with the Blue Lion in such a short time frame. He fit exactly within the parameters that she had in mind. They had thrown Keith in here under the incorrect assumption that he was the Blue Paladin, and would have been miserable. Lance wouldn’t have caved, of course, but he wouldn’t have been too happy about it, especially in the condition that he was in now.

  
It was hard for Keith to accept when he couldn’t do something, but he had to sit still and let the two hours run it’s time. If this was what they had done to him, he was hoping they would just put Lance in the Galran equivalent of a bathtub, and it would actually make Lance’s day. But that did nothing to keep Keith from being absolutely terrified of what they would do after they found out that there efforts were in vain. Keith knew that this was a trial run, that they were just testing the waters to see what would happen next.

  
The two hours went quicker than he thought they would, and he attributed it to the contentedness he felt while sitting there, knowing that for two hours, no one would bother him.

  
He was brought out of the sauna and prodded back to the cell. They shut the door before he could get a good look into the cell, and his eyes spent a good thirty seconds adjusting to the switch. It was the only downside to being able to see well in both bright lights and dim one, the transition sucked. He stood there until his eyes could see the cell clearly, and his heart rose to his chest.

  
“Where’s Lance!?” Keith ran up to the door, hitting it with all the force he could muster. “Where did you take him!?” He couldn’t even be optimistic that Lance had escaped. He couldn’t even sit up on his own. “You said that you didn’t need him!!”

  
None of the guards responded, or even reacted, to Keith’s threats. He saw the Lieutenant come around the corner.

  
“Where did you take him!!?”

  
“Take who?” The Lieutenant didn’t look in Keith’s direction.

  
“Where did you take Lance!!” Keith snarled. His vocal chords vibrated, and he could hear the growl under his words. When he was enraged, his Garla genes would start to become more dominant. Keith quickly stopped talking, praying that the Lieutenant hadn’t noticed the slip. If Keith was found out at a Galra, it would not only put him in more danger, but it would increase the chance of them using Lance against him.

  
The Lieutenant didn’t look at Keith as he passed by, even as Keith continued to pound against the door, not shouting anymore. Keith’s eyes followed where the Lieutenant had been, until a new Galra appeared a few inches from the small window.

  
“Move back.”

  
“Where is he!?” Keith tried looking down the hall, but the limited window of vision was incredibly frustrating. He saw a group of clustered guards just out of view, and knew that if they wanted to get in the door, they would whether he was standing right there or not. In a leap of faith, something Keith didn’t often take, he stepped towards the back of the cell.

  
One Galra came into the cell, and dropped Lance onto the floor before leaving, and shutting the door. Lance was soaking wet, and shivering, but Keith could hear him mumbling to himself, meaning he was still conscious.

  
“Lance! Lance, hey!” Keith touched Lance’s good shoulder, and his eyes opened. “Are you okay?? Keith. Keith, are you okay??” Lance’s arm reached out to him, and Keith took it and held it to his chest.

  
“I’m okay. They didn’t do anything that hurt me, I’m okay. What happened to you?” Keith was shaking now, too, even though he wasn’t the one that was soaking wet.

  
“I don’t know... Wasn’t awake much. There was water, and it was really nice.” Lance’s words were beginning to slur together. “But now I’m freezing.”

  
Keith held Lance’s hand tighter to his chest. “I thought you liked the cold?”

  
“Not while I’m dying.”

  
Keith’s heart began to pound, and it was a feeling he would never get used to. “You aren’t dying, I’m going to make sure that we get out of this. We will make it home.”

  
Keith could tell that Lance didn’t believe him. “Well I’m still freezing.”

  
“Perfect.” Keith lifted Lance up and moved him to a part of the cell that wasn’t covered in the water he had dripped on to the floor. He laid Lance down, then laid down behind him, using the heat that he had to spare as a blanket for Lance. It was calming to have the physical confirmation that Lance was getting at least a little bit better, with the shaking beginning to subside. The steady breathing almost put Keith to sleep.

  
“Do you think they’ll find us?” Lance’s voice startled him.

  
“Of course they’ll find us.” Keith wondered why he was even asking that question.

  
“Did you see Shiro crash?” Lance’s voice wavered.

  
“No... but I know it happened.”

  
“What if they’re all-”

  
Keith cut Lance off before he could say it. “They would either be in here with us, or the Captain would be rubbing it in our faces. But they haven’t said anything, meaning they’re safe.”

  
“But what if Shiro is out of commission?”

  
Keith thought about that for a moment, “Then an Arm and a Leg will have to work together on the other side of that door, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad this was a quick update, but with school ending, the next update may be slower, but hopefully still within the week!  
> Good things have been coming my way, and I hope they do for you as well!  
> Best Wishes!  
> -  
> Luna


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A check up on our other favorite paladins!

“What are we supposed to do??”

  
“Hunk, calm down.”

  
“Calm down?? How am I supposed to calm down!?” Hunk waved his arms as he tried not to panic, much to Pidge’s chagrin. “We have 2/5ths of Voltron alive and well right now. That’s less than half!”

  
“I can do math, Hunk”

  
“We can’t form Voltron with just an Arm and a Leg. We’d be like- wormtron. We can’t defeat the Galra Empire flopping around Saturn’s Rings like a fish out of water!”

  
“HUNK!” Pidge’s voice erupted from her chest, startling Hunk. “I know that we’re in a shitty situation right now, but we have to make do. We can’t just panic. We need to do something."

  
“Panicking is something!”

  
“Not right now, it’s not!”

  
Hunk sat down on the couch as Pidge began to pace. They had to do something, that was obvious. But she and Hunk weren’t the brawn of the team, or the leadership. They had their talents, of course, but the biggest and the smallest members of Voltron, despite knowing each other well, weren’t the ones you would want on a mission together. They were the opposite sides of the bell curve, not the middle.

  
Pidge’s fingers tapped against her leg at 3,000 miles per hour. Shiro was in the healing pod, and Coran wouldn’t even speculate when he was going to come out. The Black Lion was nowhere to be found, and the Blue and Red Lions were wherever Lance and Keith were. Allura had tried to track down the Lions, but somehow couldn’t pull up a signal. Pidge and Hunk had tried every trick in the book, all with no result.

  
“I can see you thinking...” Hunk tilted his head, patting the cushion next to him on the couch. Pidge sat down next to him. “I’m sorry that I was panicking. You’re right, we need to stop and think. It’s what we do.”

  
“You two are the thinkers, after all.” Allura stepped into the room, with her regular clothes, and her hair down. “The brains of Voltron.” Allura sat across from them. “I understand that you two are scared, we all are. But if we cannot locate Keith and Lance soon, I am afraid we may never.”

  
“What do we know?” Pidge’s leg was bouncing along the floor, now. She knew that since anything that they had thought of was a bust, that they just needed to start over. Retrace their steps and start on the starting line for a second time, and try to isolate the wrong turn that they had made.

  
“We know that it was a sector patrol, a big one. It wasn’t Zarkon, but it was still big.” Hunk started rattling off everything that he knew. “We’re still in that sector, so there’s a chance they aren’t too far."

  
Pidge continued on Hunk’s thought, revealing a pattern she had noticed in the past. “If the commanding officer is of high enough rank, he won’t be in a huge rush to get Keith and Lance to Zarkon. He’s already gotten Zarkon’s approval, all he has to do is keep it. And with two Lions... it really doesn’t matter when he gets them to him.”

  
Allura stood up. “If you believe that they are still in the vicinity, then I may have an idea. Pidge, I had overheard you and Lance talking about the game console you had bought. You said that it had the technology within it to detect certain signals within a small range, correct?”

  
“There’s a program that can detect and attach to a wifi signal... yeah? How does that help?” Pidge pulled up her feet and rested her head on her knees.

  
“I was thinking that if Hunk could find a way to power it, that you could change its capabilities to be able to detect and latch on to the Galra ship, giving us a way to track it, if it is in fact still in the vicinity.”

  
“Princess, we can’t track this ship with the Altean tech... how can we find it with an old game system?” Hunk ran his hand through his hair.

  
Pidge stood up suddenly. “Because they won’t know to shield themselves from it. Think about it, Hunk! The Galra don’t even know that this tech exists, much less to protect themselves from it.” PIdge’s brain went faster than her mouth. “It might work- might need a huge power surge.” She stared at Hunk.

  
“I can probably do that! Keep thinking!”

  
“If we can program the detector to latch onto some kind of ship signal instead of, you know, wifi, then we can extract the information from the system and figure out the location of the ship- or, like, the location of the glara wifi router.”

  
“What do we do when we find it?” Hunk leaning forward.

  
“We get them back.” All of Pidge’s nervous energy left her, and she became stone cold serious. “It doesn’t matter if Shiro’s awake or not. We find a way to get them back, and we save them.”

  
Allura was dumbfounded at Pidge’s tone. She knew that Pidge’s family was more than likely dead or in captivity, and those odds were switched for Keith and Lance. She knew that Pidge and Lance were close, but Pidge hadn’t even known Keith until they had found Shiro in the desert. The fact that Allura could clearly hear the same dangerous undertone in Pidge’s voice as she spoke about saving Keith and Lance made her more than nervous. It devastated her, because it meant that the pain the Pidge always felt was currently doubled inside her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're a Pidge fan, get ready. She's about to take the coolest leadership role ever!  
> Also, I am so sorry. I'm still writing, and this is not going to be left hanging! A ton of things have happened, and I am trying to finish a film as well as finish applying for this job. But my writing commences, I assure you. It always does.  
> I AM SORRY THIS IS SO SHORT. It was 2 and a half pages on docs. The other chapters are 6. With my anxiety being really bad recently, I had to put this out or I knew all process would be halted on the fic. The next chapter will not fall short of your expectations... I hope...  
> With gratitude  
> -  
> Luna  
> EDIT:  
> Please appreciate the effort I went through on my POS laptop to make the format easier to read.


	4. Chapter 4

Nothing had been working. Keith almost found it funny. The Galra’s switch up seemed to be keeping them alive, after all. He was sure that Lance would have spouted a fever by now, if the Galra hadn’t been cooling him down. And Keith would get a free sauna every few hours, which he enjoyed, much to the fury of the Captain.

But it wasn’t worth what they were going through, not by any stretch of the imagination. Lance was weakening by the day, no longer able to even stand up on his own. The makeshift bandages that Keith had made were soaked with blood after the first day, and were useless after that. 

They got all the sleep they could, but the Galra would pull them out at times that seemed random. Keith stopped fighting them, praying that this time wouldn’t be the one where the Galra shook things up. He knew that if he fought them, they would fight back, injuring him or Lance even more, and he knew that the result of both of those could be catastrophic.

Keith would tap against the wall, small rhythms that didn’t do much to calm him down, but it was something for him to do while Lance was asleep. The Galra hadn’t exactly installed a pool table.

Keith imagined that the little taps were morse code, that he was talking to an alien on the other side of the wall who would hear the message and give it to Shiro or Allura. He was lost in thought until he heard small hums from next to him, where Lance was still curled up in a ball, but he was smiling.

Keith tapped a little louder, and Lance hummed a little louder. Keith had no idea what he was humming, but it didn’t really matter. Lance was happy. He listen to Lance hum for a few minutes, until Lance opened his eyes.

“What were you tapping?” Lance rolled onto his back, staring up at Keith, his voice no higher than a whisper.

“You obviously knew, you were humming along to it.” Keith didn’t know why he was being asked this question. 

“No, no, I don’t know, because there’s no way you know the song I was humming.” Lance insisted. “There is literally no way that you were tapping what I was humming.”

“Wanna bet?” Keith honestly thought Lance was either bluffing, or asleep.

“Ever heard of Calle 13 (KAI-YAY, TRAY-SAY), Keith?” Lance looked smug.

“Konye Trace-Eh?” Keith was dumbfounded.

Lance laughed as hard as Keith thought his body would allow. He was almost insulted. “Never even try to say that again, ever. It’s a Spanish Band, with roughly a fafillion latin grammys.”

“But how did you know I’d never heard of it?”

“Because of how you pronounced the name, first of all. They’re a spanish band, Keith. They rap in spanish.” Lance was still smiling, so Keith started to play along.

“Just because I don’t know what they’re saying, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t listen.” Keith laughed, too. It felt good to ignore the terrible predicament that they were in, even if he really didn’t want to let his guard down.

“You said Konye Trace-eh. There’s no redemption.” Lance pretending to snub Keith, tilting his head in the opposite direction.

“Okay, whatever, pretend to shun me because I am culturally inept.” Keith rolled his eyes, but moved to sit closer to Lance. “So, what were you humming? What song?”

“Muerte en Hawaii.” Lance drew out the words as if they meant a lot to him. “It means Death in Hawaii.”

“That sounds terrible!”

Lance laughed again. “It’s a great song, you uncultured swine!” Lance signed from laughing, then winced.

Keith’s joy seeped away. “What’s wrong?”

“Chest hurts, you know, from laughing so hard.” Lance’s breaths became more labored, and Keith could see his chest rising less with each breath.

“Can you breath??” Keith’s heart rate rose exponentially as he helped Lance sit up against the wall. 

Lance nodded, holding Keith’s wrist. “Just hurts. Wait.” He hated that after being happy, for a few moments, Lance had to go through another bout of pain. 

After the Galra would take them, there was a chance they could come back with another injury, however minor. They didn’t bother Keith, but they had been socking Lance in the chest, and it was taking its toll.

As Keith watched Lance slow his breathing, he vowed to get them out. “We won’t be in here for long, I promise. You’ll be healed, and you’ll be good as new.”

“Of course you will, Blue Paladin of Voltron.” Lance wheezed, with a minuscule smile on his face.

“You noticed?” Keith was shocked that Lance had picked up on that, the only time he had heard them say that was when Lance was unconscious. “Don’t talk, breathe.”

Lance nodded, his smile going away as he gripped Keith’s wrists, once again focused on breathing. It got easier as he went, but he knew that overall, it was only going to get worse. He still had part of Keith’s shirt wrapped around his head, but everywhere else was open, because they thought the bloody cloth would do more harm than good.

Lance zoned out, trying to relax, while Keith just stared at him. This could end terribly. Frankly, Keith thought, it already has. Any ending to this would be terrible, as that’s how the situation is right now. It could only get less, or more terrible.

“Rise, Red Paladin.”

Point made. Keith flinched, the voice surprising him. He hadn’t realized that the door had been opened, and that the Captain had entered, flanked by his Lieutenant and two guards. Before Keith could stand up, Lance began to shift, trying to stand up on his own. Keith pushed him down.

“He can’t stand up.” Keith’s voice was cold as steel.

“He will.” The Lieutenant strode forward. “He is wanted for examination.”

Lance somehow looked more terrified than he already was, and began to hyperventilate again.  
“Why?”

“Because he’s half Galran, a fact you surely already knew,” the Lieutenant seemed incredibly annoyed. “Step aside.”

Keith’s idea of not fighting back in favor of staying unharmed suddenly went out the window. “You aren’t going to touch him!!”

“That’s a lot of fire for a Blue Paladin.” The Lieutenant growled, but the Captain cut him off.

“We can use this.” The Captain smirked, looking at Keith and then at Lance, his gaze hovering. 

Keith knew that if Lance were healthy, if he was okay, that he would be fighting alongside him. But the fact of the matter was, he wasn’t. Lance was hurt, and he barely had enough energy to sit up, much less fight back or even hide his fear. Keith was relatively uninjured, but they had beaten Lance. Keith knew that if the roles were reversed, he would have been a terrified mess too.

The guards all raised their guns at once as if they had a telepathic link to the Captain. “Move, Blue Paladin. Or we will kill you.”

Keith didn’t move, and he didn’t plan too. He didn’t even plan to break eye contact with the Captain. But plans changed when he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“I can do it.” Lance’s voice shook, but he managed to stay standing.

Keith turned around, “You can’t they’re going to test you. Lance, you can’t.”

“I can’t stand up, either, but here I am.” Lance tried to smile, but he ended up just taking a shaky breath, his weight on Keith’s shoulder increasing.

“You-” Keith yelped as he was yanked back by the collar. Two of the guards had grabbed him by surprise, holding him fast as he pulled forward to somehow get to Lance.

As soon as Lance’s crutch was gone, he fell back to the ground, shouting as the weight went back onto his injured leg. Captain Konrek watched the situation unfold with a hint of amusement. The Lieutenant stepped backwards, out of the cell, and Keith heard him speak into the recording device again.

“The Blue Paladin has a fire about him, and seems to act on instinct. The Red Paladin, however, seems to be the only thing rooting the Blue Paladin on the correct side of his sanity.”

Captain Konrek stalked towards Lance, hauling him up by the shoulder. Lance whimpered as the Captain’s grip tightened, and Keith could tell that Lance was giving every bit of effort he could to stay strong.

“Put him down!!” Keith screamed.

“You’re an interesting specimen, really.” Konrek leaned into Lance’s face, the barrel of his gun pushing Lance’s chin upward. “I’m curious to know what the scientists learn from you.”

Keith’s vision went red as Lance tried to pull away from the Captain, but Konrek just pushed his gun further into Lance’s chin. “You can’t even stand,” he spit, “how can you fight us?”

“Leave him alone!!” Keith growled. He actually growled. Lance heard, he knew he did. The deep, vocal vibrations that only occurred when he was angrier than words could describe. He bared his teeth at the Captain, who seemed unable to care any less. Keith’s vision began to shift from red, to yellow.  
“We’re taking the Red Paladin.” 

“No, no!! Please--” Lance screamed in pain as the Captain shoved him towards another guard, who grabbed his wrists and pinned them behind his back as Lance struggled to stand. Lance’s sporadic breathing replaced any possible combinations of words. He needed to tell Keith he would be okay, that he would figure it out somehow. He looked over at Keith, but instead of conveying a message to him, Lance saw the one thing he didn’t expect.

Keith’s eyes were yellow.

His eyes were yellow, and instead of black, his hair was a deep, almost soft looking purple.

“Don’t touch him!!” Keith snarled, the growling undertone now even stronger. The snarl was actually that, and Lance could see small fangs in his mouth. Real fangs. He knew what he had seen.

And so had everyone else.

In the eye of the hurricane, Keith struck. It was as if the calm, the shock of the reveal, had created the brief pause just so that the inner wall of the storm could strike. Keith turned to his left and threw one of the galra soldiers out of the cell. 

Lieutenant Xald and Captain Konrek slowly backed out of the room, watching the chaos from outside the confines. Keith took out the other guard holding him, and suddenly it was just him, Lance, and the lone Galra soldier, with a gun against Lance’s head. It was a stand off straight from Keith’s nightmares.

“Stand down!” Captain Konrek’s voice boomed towards the soldier, who faltered. 

Keith faltered too, gasping for breath. He wanted to take down the soldier right then and there, but knew that Lance would die if he tried. 

The soldier takes his gun and slams it against Lance, who falls limp as the soldier catapults him towards Keith, who catches him with a shout. The cell door slams behind the soldier.

The Konrek comes up to the window of the door, glaring at Keith, who is kneeling on the ground, supporting Lance’s head against his shoulder. “Your charade may have lasted this long, Paladins,” The words dripped with malice. “But your little joke, is up.” They left the hall, leaving Keith and Lance alone.

Lance groaned, leaning against Keith, before trying and failing to sit up. “What happened?”  
“You’re safe for now... that’s what happened.”

“You turned Galra. I saw it, you got strong, and your eyes turned-”

“I know what happened!” Keith snapped. “I’m sorry, I just...”

“We can talk about it later... When you’re okay...” Lance’s voice trailed off.

“No! No, Lance, you need to stay awake! Lance!!” Keith tried to sit Lance back up, but he would just fall back to the ground. 

Keith sat against the wall of the cell, letting Lance’s head rest his lap. “Death in Hawaii?” Keith mused. “We’re dead here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to back!! You're welcome! Bet you weren't expecting THAT.  
> Writing this is totally my guilty pleasure, so this chapter went down fast.  
> ALSO, I have a tumblr! Lunalovesclaymation.tumblr.com ! Chat it up with me, and if you want me to put updates or sneak peaks up there, I will! Just ask!  
> (And... you know... if the urge arises to tag the fic on tumblr or create fan art... I would certainly not be opposed...)  
> Make good choices, and have a wonderful weekend!  
> -  
> Luna


End file.
